headphones for digital piano

[jasonhanjk 0]

Hee hee....

[tropicalrips 0]

Besides Tenson I think only Gryphon & one other member here uses headphones for listening to instruments hence why there is a lack of replies. But as a pair of new headphones for music it is very good value for money.

i think if you hav the buget can go for the Audio Technica range of studio phones, they are not very expensive,

 

i hav the D40fs, which is bass enhanced, theres another M40fs, which is flat perfect for instruments and recordings

 

these phones are very "accurate" cost around $150

i hav also tested the ATH-M30 which is about $30 cheaper, and sound almost as good as the 40 series, its hard to tell these closed/studio phones apart from the sound alone as they are all very forward sounding, which is great for instruments and recordings and mixing

 

if u are going to do your own recordings, i would not suggest the D40fs as the bass is a little too strong, and u would end up with a track that is too weak in the bass area in your final mix, cause its very likely that u lower the bass during mixdown, the opposite is true to the other open phones, u will end up with something that has too much bass or too dark, as the open phones tend to be bright

 

so look for something that is forward sounding (less staging) and flat, this way u can get the true sound of your instruments into the recording, then mix your sound to the way u want people to hear it

[tropicalrips 0]

ah okok i understand. btu shouldnt headphones for instruments like piano be simlilar in type to headphones for classical music?

well u can say that its both true & not true at the same time...kind of hard to explain, when u are listening to your instrument, u are hearing the sound of that instrument, but when u listen to "music" its a different story

 

when u listen to classical music or any type of music, what u are hearing is the final mix of the recording that has been mastered by the sound engineer, he would hav added all the "staging" or effects to the mix, echos, reverb, chorus all these stuff to color the music, make it sound "polished" or "tailored".

 

without all these the CD will sound like a Demo disc, raw & unrefine. in order to bring out the sound that the engineer wants u to hear, u need a headphone that can reproduced the music with all of its polished details, thats when u need a pair of cans that has the range, able to place all the instruments on their respective locations on stage, when all of these come together, u would be able to tell that the guitar is infont of the drums or that the backing vocals are standing just left on the stage...and so on, get the picture?

 

if u use this same headphone for your instrument, then what u are hearing is not the true sound of that instrument, so if you are doing recordings, this may giv u problems, as u don't hav a breakdown of what your instruments sound like, cause these phones are usually not forward enough, everything will sound like they are in the background, or far away from u, in the final mix.

 

 

so it all comes down to what u want to do with the sound u get from your instrument, but i think if u play an instrument, then most likely u will want it to sound un-colored & upfront

 

hope this can giv u clearer picture of the difference between a headphone for instrument & a headphone for music

[blackice 0]

ah okok i understand. btu shouldnt headphones for instruments like piano be simlilar in type to headphones for classical music?

well u can say that its both true & not true at the same time...kind of hard to explain, when u are listening to your instrument, u are hearing the sound of that instrument, but when u listen to "music" its a different story

 

when u listen to classical music or any type of music, what u are hearing is the final mix of the recording that has been mastered by the sound engineer, he would hav added all the "staging" or effects to the mix, echos, reverb, chorus all these stuff to color the music, make it sound "polished" or "tailored".

 

without all these the CD will sound like a Demo disc, raw & unrefine. in order to bring out the sound that the engineer wants u to hear, u need a headphone that can reproduced the music with all of its polished details, thats when u need a pair of cans that has the range, able to place all the instruments on their respective locations on stage, when all of these come together, u would be able to tell that the guitar is infont of the drums or that the backing vocals are standing just left on the stage...and so on, get the picture?

 

if u use this same headphone for your instrument, then what u are hearing is not the true sound of that instrument, so if you are doing recordings, this may giv u problems, as u don't hav a breakdown of what your instruments sound like, cause these phones are usually not forward enough, everything will sound like they are in the background, or far away from u, in the final mix.

 

 

so it all comes down to what u want to do with the sound u get from your instrument, but i think if u play an instrument, then most likely u will want it to sound un-colored & upfront

 

hope this can giv u clearer picture of the difference between a headphone for instrument & a headphone for music

thanks guys for your help.

 

jasonhan: thanks for your kind offer. but i've got church today. =) and right now im serving NS, so its like i come home very late. haha

[blackice 0]

anyway, how much is teh AKG K 66? is the bass response good? not loose and muddy?

[jasonhanjk 0]

kk.

God bless you.

[N@Z 0]

...

i think if you hav the buget can go for the Audio Technica range of studio phones, they are not very expensive,

 

i hav the D40fs, which is bass enhanced, theres another M40fs, which is flat perfect for instruments and recordings

 

these phones are very "accurate" cost around $150

i hav also tested the ATH-M30 which is about $30 cheaper, and sound almost as good as the 40 series, its hard to tell these closed/studio phones apart from the sound alone as they are all very forward sounding, which is great for instruments and recordings and mixing

 

if u are going to do your own recordings, i would not suggest the D40fs as the bass is a little too strong, and u would end up with a track that is too weak in the bass area in your final mix, cause its very likely that u lower the bass during mixdown, the opposite is true to the other open phones, u will end up with something that has too much bass or too dark, as the open phones tend to be bright

 

so look for something that is forward sounding (less staging) and flat, this way u can get the true sound of your instruments into the recording, then mix your sound to the way u want people to hear it

A very good point, looking for a fairly neutral sounding pair of cans especially if you intend to record your music.

[Tenson 0]

Bass resposnse of the K66 isn't powerfull or warm but it is well extended, tight and clean. They extend from 18Hz to 22KHz.

 

If it helps anyone, to my mind they sound alot like the Alesis M1 MKII Active speakers in terms of tonality and clarity.

[ckng 0]

ah okok i understand. btu shouldnt headphones for instruments like piano be simlilar in type to headphones for classical music?

well u can say that its both true & not true at the same time...kind of hard to explain, when u are listening to your instrument, u are hearing the sound of that instrument, but when u listen to "music" its a different story

 

when u listen to classical music or any type of music, what u are hearing is the final mix of the recording that has been mastered by the sound engineer, he would hav added all the "staging" or effects to the mix, echos, reverb, chorus all these stuff to color the music, make it sound "polished" or "tailored".

 

without all these the CD will sound like a Demo disc, raw & unrefine. in order to bring out the sound that the engineer wants u to hear, u need a headphone that can reproduced the music with all of its polished details, thats when u need a pair of cans that has the range, able to place all the instruments on their respective locations on stage, when all of these come together, u would be able to tell that the guitar is infont of the drums or that the backing vocals are standing just left on the stage...and so on, get the picture?

 

if u use this same headphone for your instrument, then what u are hearing is not the true sound of that instrument, so if you are doing recordings, this may giv u problems, as u don't hav a breakdown of what your instruments sound like, cause these phones are usually not forward enough, everything will sound like they are in the background, or far away from u, in the final mix.

 

 

so it all comes down to what u want to do with the sound u get from your instrument, but i think if u play an instrument, then most likely u will want it to sound un-colored & upfront

 

hope this can giv u clearer picture of the difference between a headphone for instrument & a headphone for music

This is not true for all types of music. Classical music is typically recorded with as little as 2 microphones. You get the natural soundstage from such a setup. The 2 microphones pickup the natural spatial relationships of all the instruments in the orchestra/ensemble.

 

This unlike pop/rock where each instrument is individually miked, and the soundstage "created" by the sound engineer. Pop/rock recordings also tend to use multitrack/multilayer recording where each instrument can be recorded invidually of each other, at different times (if so desired).

 

Thus the soundstage of recordings made in this way is "fake" and not natural.

 

For mixing/listening to instruments, most people would prefer to use a neutral-sounding 'phones so everything will sound "accurate". These will tend to have flat frequency response, without any bass/treble boosts. For general listening of music, most people tend not to mind some colourations to the sound (e.g. like enhanced bass).

 

Regards

CK

[blackice 0]

ah okok i understand. btu shouldnt headphones for instruments like piano be simlilar in type to headphones for classical music?

well u can say that its both true & not true at the same time...kind of hard to explain, when u are listening to your instrument, u are hearing the sound of that instrument, but when u listen to "music" its a different story

 

when u listen to classical music or any type of music, what u are hearing is the final mix of the recording that has been mastered by the sound engineer, he would hav added all the "staging" or effects to the mix, echos, reverb, chorus all these stuff to color the music, make it sound "polished" or "tailored".

 

without all these the CD will sound like a Demo disc, raw & unrefine. in order to bring out the sound that the engineer wants u to hear, u need a headphone that can reproduced the music with all of its polished details, thats when u need a pair of cans that has the range, able to place all the instruments on their respective locations on stage, when all of these come together, u would be able to tell that the guitar is infont of the drums or that the backing vocals are standing just left on the stage...and so on, get the picture?

 

if u use this same headphone for your instrument, then what u are hearing is not the true sound of that instrument, so if you are doing recordings, this may giv u problems, as u don't hav a breakdown of what your instruments sound like, cause these phones are usually not forward enough, everything will sound like they are in the background, or far away from u, in the final mix.

 

 

so it all comes down to what u want to do with the sound u get from your instrument, but i think if u play an instrument, then most likely u will want it to sound un-colored & upfront

 

hope this can giv u clearer picture of the difference between a headphone for instrument & a headphone for music

This is not true for all types of music. Classical music is typically recorded with as little as 2 microphones. You get the natural soundstage from such a setup. The 2 microphones pickup the natural spatial relationships of all the instruments in the orchestra/ensemble.

 

This unlike pop/rock where each instrument is individually miked, and the soundstage "created" by the sound engineer. Pop/rock recordings also tend to use multitrack/multilayer recording where each instrument can be recorded invidually of each other, at different times (if so desired).

 

Thus the soundstage of recordings made in this way is "fake" and not natural.

 

For mixing/listening to instruments, most people would prefer to use a neutral-sounding 'phones so everything will sound "accurate". These will tend to have flat frequency response, without any bass/treble boosts. For general listening of music, most people tend not to mind some colourations to the sound (e.g. like enhanced bass).

 

Regards

CK

thanks guy. so what would u personally recommend? would monitoring phones like the Senn hd25sp be good? or would the akg 66, philips 890 be suitable as well. i welcome any more suggestions.

[ckng 0]

Hi,

 

thanks guy. so what would u personally recommend? would monitoring phones like the Senn hd25sp be good? or would the akg 66, philips 890 be suitable as well. i welcome any more suggestions.

 

Haven't heard a lot of headphones, so can't really recommend. Sorry.

 

Regards

CK

[jasonhanjk 0]

Wait for the meet, then you know what you want...

 

Or Sennheiser HD600 or Beyer DT880.

[tropicalrips 0]

thanks for pointing that out CKNG

was getting lost in my own writing, knew i forgot somthing

Mic

 

i think we all agree that a neutral & flat sounding headphone is probably best suited for blackice's application

 

so guys anyone with any suggestions?

 

my contribution :

ATH-M40fs

ATH-M30

if buget permits

 

for somthing really cheap :

berhringer HPS3000 (>$50 , closed monitor headphone)

Edited October 26, 2003 by tropicalrips

[Mackie 0]

Is the DT231 the one that is selling for $99 at Hung Brothers now ?

It's $89 as mentioned by jason. I can only better the price slightly if shipped from overseas. U'd have to wait a week though.